9/11, Charlie Kirk, and the Supreme Value of Jesus Christ
This is what I preached this past Sunday, 9/14/25, for the Introduction to my sermon on Luke 23:39-43.
September 11, 2001
This week was awful. We’ve seen that great evil is among us.
Thursday was September 11, the anniversary of when Muslims flew passenger planes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in 2001. I’ll never forget that day. I remember I was home, and my mother called me from work to tell me that a plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers. I turned on the TV, thinking it was a horrible accident. But then, I watched as another plane flew into the other Twin Tower. The towers exploded and crashed to the ground.
Almost 3,000 Americans lost their lives that day.[1] And nearly 7,000 more have died from various cancers and lung illnesses due to their heroic response in helping the victims and with cleanup.[2]
Osama Bin Ladin orchestrated the terrorist event all because America to him was the great Satan due to the Christian influence here.[3] We are the infidels who deserve to die according to the Quran.[4]
When I was in the PhD program at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary six years ago, there was a pastor from Jordan in the program too. It was his homeland, born and raised. He told me that the King of Jordan was keeping ISIS out currently, but that there was about 20% of ISIS-friendly Muslims already in Jordan; and that the moderate Muslims, about 40%, would help ISIS if they breached the walls, fences, and patrols, and tried to take over Jordan.
You must understand Christian that the so-called liberal or moderate Muslims in America, if Muslim law (Sharia) is ever on the voting docket in America, or if ISIS-friendly Islam gains a foothold in America, the moderate Muslims that pastors like J.D. Greear defend,[5] will agree with them. Sharia will be the law of the land, and no moderate Muslim will stand in its way. Only Christians will.
September 10, 2025
On Wednesday, September 10, Charlie Kirk was speaking in Orem, Utah at Utah Valley University to over 3,000 College students. A 22 year-old College student that had been living with his tranny boyfriend,[6] used a High-Powered bolt-action rifle, a Mauser Model 98 Rifle, .30-06., a .30 aught six, a gun that is legal in all 50 states, and legal in the UK,[7] to shoot and kill Charlie Kirk from 150 yards away.
If Charlie Kirk can be assassinated in Orem, Utah, then Jared Moore can be assassinated in Crossville, TN. Charlie was 31 years of age, and a husband and a father of two young children. He traveled across college campuses debating and sharing the Gospel. He co-founded Turning Point when was 18 years old. As he matured, got married, and had children, he grew more and more biblical. If you go and look up videos from him from the past several years on College campuses, you’ll hear him share the Gospel of Jesus Christ over and over again. You’ll hear him defending the death and resurrection of Christ and encouraging people to repent and believe in Him. Millions of people heard the Gospel because of him. And there are numerous testimonies online of people who came to Christ due to his influence, and even more since his murder.
The reason why I say that this is such a great evil is because Charlie was just like many of us here. Most of the things that he said, I say every week from the pulpit. And I’m shocked by how many people hated him. There’s a website that was launched a few days ago that has over 30,000 public posts on Social Media from people who publicly celebrated his murder.[8] It’s shocking to think that there are that many people out there in America who hate the morals and ethics of Christianity, so much so, that if they could get away with it, they would murder us.
I don’t say these things to scare you. I’m just telling you the reality of the time we live in. But, church, listen, Christ lived in an even worse time; and most Christians in history lived in a worse time than we do now. Remember what Jesus preached in Matthew 16:24-26,
“24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
Jesus told us that He would give us a cross. Rome crucified criminals on crosses. Jesus was the most loving Man who ever lived! And the Jews and Gentiles murdered Him for it. The apostles were some of the most loving men who ever lived, and most of them were murdered for it as well.
How Must Christians Respond?
So, what are we going to do about Charlie Kirk’s murder? How should we respond? What we must do is realize that we can bleed better than anyone else, so we can be bold for Christ. Because of the wonderful grace of God in Christ, we take our last breath here and our next breath will be with Jesus. We shouldn’t cower because of fearing man. Fearing God means that we don’t have to fear anyone else. We are free to lovingly share the Gospel and Christ’s morals across the world because Jesus is Lord. This world needs Jesus, and we must take Him to them.
An example from history of how Christians can bleed better than unbelievers is found in the story of the Salvation Army and the shipwreck of the RMS Empress of Ireland.
General William Booth founded what would later be known as “The Salvation Army” in 1865. Its purpose from beginning to end was the salvation of men’s souls. Over his lifetime, he established Army work in 58 countries, holding “salvation meetings” often. He published a book in 1890 titled, In Darkest England and the Way Out, where he made a case for helping the weak by abolishing vice and poverty through building houses, providing food and shelter, and in training people with the necessary skills needed to get jobs.
But make no mistake, Booth’s primary concern was still with the souls of men, women, and children. He wrote in the “Preface,”
“I have no intention to depart in the smallest degree from the main principles on which I have acted in the past. My only hope for the permanent deliverance of mankind from misery, either in this world or the next, is the regeneration or remaking of the individual by the power of the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ. But in providing for the relief of temporal misery I reckon that I am only making it easy where it is now difficult, and possible where it is now all but impossible, for men and women to find their way to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[9]
In 1914 many salvation army officers were on a large ship, The RMS Empress of Ireland, and it wrecked. It’s become known as the Titanic of Canada. On May 29, 1914, roughly 2 years after the Titanic crashed, the Empress crashed with another ship in icy cold waters. They too didn’t have enough life preservers for those on board: 1,012 people died as a result, 465 survived. There were 130 Salvation Army officers on that boat on their way to a conference: 109 of them drowned. Survivors have said that the reason why most of them drowned is because they were taking their life preservers and putting them on other people, as they said, “I can die better than you can.”[10]
Another example comes from John G. Paton, a Christian Missionary to the New Hebrides Islands in the 1800s.
When Paton determined that he was to go to the unreached tribes of the South Sea Islands in 1856, a fellow Christian objected, "You will be eaten by cannibals!" To this Paton responded:
“Your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.”[11]
One out of every one Christian will die. Christian, we can bleed better than any unbeliever because we are ready to be with Jesus. Our sins have been forgiven and we’ve received the righteousness of Christ by His Holy Spirit through faith, and now we are reconciled to God. We can live our lives boldly for Christ regardless of whether people hate us or love us. We can share the Gospel and the morality of Jesus boldly because we love Jesus and we love sinners, because He loves sinners! The cross of Jesus proves His love for sinners!
Christian, if you are silent about Jesus and His ethics, you may live longer, but you won’t live better. And then one day, you’ll die in your silence and you’ll be where all the martyrs are, but you’ll lose reward because you feared men more than God. Yet God is so gracious and loving that even the silent Christians spend eternity with Jesus.
So this morning, I want to challenge you to be like Jesus, to love God so boldly, to love God’s word so much that you’re willing to fear God above mankind, and you’ll take the Gospel into a hostile world, even if that means you must give your life for Jesus and His morals.
He’s worth it church! Jesus is of supreme worth! Hold tightly to Him who lives and hold loosely to this world that is perishing!
[1] “9/11 Investigation,” Accessed September 15, 2025, https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/911-investigation.
[2] Michelle Whitmer, “Asbestos Exposure and 9/11,” April 8, 2025, https://www.asbestos.com/world-trade-center/.
[3] “In Their Own Words: What the Terrorists Believe, What They Hope to Accomplish, and How They Intend to Accomplish It,” Accessed September 15, 2025, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060905-7.html.
[4] Quran 9:5 (Surah At-Tawbah) says, “But once the Sacred Months have passed, kill the polytheists ˹who violated their treaties˺ wherever you find them, capture them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them on every way. But if they repent, perform prayers, and pay alms-tax, then set them free. Indeed, Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
Quran 9:29 (Surah At-Tawbah) says, “Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, nor comply with what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth from among those who were given the Scripture,1 until they pay the tax,2 willingly submitting, fully humbled.”
[5] See Dr Jared Moore, “JD Greear Says Christians Should Learn From Muslims Because We Are Selfish People,” YouTube video, February 7, 2025,
. Also see Dr Jared Moore, “JD Greear Says Christians Should ‘Cherish’ And ‘Fight For’ Muslims, Their Rights,” YouTube video, February 7, 2025,
.
[6] Brooke Singman, “Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin lived with transgender partner who is now cooperating with FBI: officials,” September 13, 2025, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/charlie-kirks-assassin-lived-transgender-partner-who-now-cooperating-fbi-sources.
[7] The 30 aught 6 is legal in the US in all 50 states: https://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/state-gun-laws/. It’s also legal in the UK: https://www.countydeerstalking.co.uk/rifle-calibres.
[8] See Charlie’s Murderers, Accessed September 14, 2025,
https://charliesmurderers.com/.
[9] General Wm Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out (Chicago: Charles H Sergel & Co, 1890), 7.
[10] Evangeline Booth and Grace Livingston Hill, The War Romance of the Salvation Army (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1919), 23.
[11] John G. Patton, Missionary to the New Hebrides: An Autobiography, ed. James Paton (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891), 55-56.